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Proclamation 1763
It forbade all settlement west of a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains. Exclusion from the vast region of Trans-Appalachia created discontent between Britain and colonial land speculators and potential settlers. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest in reaction to changes in taxation by the British to the detriment of colonial goods. -
Prohibitory Act
The Prohibitory Act was British legislation in late 1775 that cut off all trade between the American colonies and England, and removed the colonies from the King's protection. -
Dec. of Independence
The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule.With the Declaration, these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. -
Common Sense
Advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Pamphlet written by Thomas Paine. -
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War. -
Land Ordinance 1785
It set up a standardized system whereby settlers could purchase title to farmland in the undeveloped west. -
Anti-Federalists
The Antifederalists were a diverse coalition of people who opposed ratification of the Constitution. Although less well organized than the Federalists, they also had an impressive group of leaders who were especially prominent in state politics. -
Connecticut Plan/Great Compromise
agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. It retained the bicameral legislature as proposed by Roger Sherman. -
Checks & balances
Under this model, a state's government is divided into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities so that powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typical division is into three branches: a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary. -
Judiciary Act of 1789
It established the federal judiciary of the United States. -
Unicameral legislature
A unicameral parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house. -
Federalists
The Federalist Party was the first political party in the United States. Under Alexander Hamilton, it dominated the national government from 1789 to 1801. The party appealed to businesses and to conservatives who favored banks, national over state government, manufacturing, an army and navy, and in world affairs preferred Great Britain and opposed the French Revolution. -
Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. The Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the U.S. -
Proclamation of Neutrality
The Proclamation of Neutrality was a formal announcement issued by U.S. President George Washington on April 22, 1793 that declared the nation neutral in the conflict between France and Great Britain. -
Jay Treaty 1794
Was a 1795 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted war. The Treaty was negotiated by John Jay and gained many of the primary American goals. This included the withdrawal of British Army units from forts in the Northwest Territory. -
Pinckney Treaty 1795
Established intentions of friendship between the United States and Spain. It also defined the border between the United States and Spanish Florida, and guaranteed the United States navigation rights on the Mississippi River. -
1800 Revolution
The election was a realigning election that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican rule. -
Whigs
The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. Alongside the Democratic Party, it was one of the two major parties in the United States during the late 1830s. The Whigs celebrated Clay's vision of the American System, which promoted rapid economic and industrial growth in the United States through support for a national bank, high tariffs, a distribution policy, and federal funding for infrastructure projects. Founded 1833.
